Piedmont Comes Of Age 

by Antonio Galloni

This year, I left my tastings of the wines of
Piedmont energized and excited. Simply put, I have never encountered so many
delicious wines from so many different producers. Of course, there are always
varying levels of quality based on the characteristics of specific vintages
(see 2008 Dolcetto below), but the simple fact is that Piedmont’s wines have
never been better and more consistent across the board.

In order to understand what is happening in
Piedmont it is instructive to look at the last 20-25 years of history. Like
many regions, modern technology had a profound impact on the quality of wines
beginning in the 1980s, with the widespread adoption of temperature control in
fermentation, the reduction of fermentation/maceration times and the
introduction of French oak barrels, which also led to shorter periods of oak
aging. Many of the wines that brought attention to Piedmont in the 1980s and
1990s were made in the so-called modern style that among other things relied
heavily on the use of French oak barrels. Lost in the polemics around shorter
fermentation times and French oak was that growers were also paying much more
attention to limiting yields in their vineyards and to cleanliness in their
cellars. In the latter half of the 1990s, Piedmont’s growers made a number of
profound wines, but many of these wines reflected a style that was at times
extreme in its search for color, concentration and size.

Over the last few years, however, producers
have matured and the region has begun to witness a fascinating convergence of
styles. The more modernist producers have largely backed off the new oak,
gradually lengthened fermentation times and moved away from excessively low
yields. At the same time, traditional producers have raised quality by limiting
yields and paying more attention to replacing their old barrels. Perhaps even
more importantly, all of the work that growers have put into their impeccably
farmed vineyards over the last 25 years is finally starting to come through in
a very big way now that the plants are of a certain age and the veneer of
excessive intervention in the cellar has been peeled off. As a result, overall
quality, purity of varietal expression and consistency in Piedmont have never
been higher.

Barolo and Barbaresco have often been
difficult wines for the general wine-drinking populace to embrace because the
tannins can be formidable when the wines are young. That is increasingly not
the case. Advances in viticultural and oenological practices and generally more
favorable weather conditions are putting producers in a strong position to make
delicious wines that can be appreciated upon release. Young Nebbiolo is much
more approachable than it has &nbsp;ever been,
which means that as consumers encounter these wines for the first time they are
much more likely to fall in love with them. The number of terrific Langhe
Nebbiolos and, to a lesser extent, Nebbiolos from Alba bears this out. Today,
it is difficult to find a bad bottle of wine in Piedmont. To be sure, young
Barolos and Barbarescos still tend to close down in bottle, but not in any way
that is meaningfully different than the finest grand cru Burgundies or top
Bordeaux. I am increasingly convinced that within the next 10-15 years the
appreciation for Piedmont’s top wines will explode globally as consumers become
more familiar with the wines. Most of the very finest wines are made in small
quantities of a just a few hundred cases, so it is likely that prices will
eventually have to catch up, even if that will take a while given the current
state of the global economy. Readers with the financial resources to do so
should take advantage of the current weakness in the market and the abundance
of high quality vintages that are or soon will be available to build a
collection of fine Barolo and Barbaresco at what very well might look like
bargain prices in the future.

And Now, For The Not So Good News....

While it is quite clear that overall quality
has risen dramatically in Piedmont, the region also faces significant
challenges. New plantings of Nebbiolo continue to grow, stripping the hills of
valuable forests and weakening these fragile ecosystems. Numerous vineyards
were damaged by landslides during the winter of 2009 at least partly because
tree root systems are no longer in place to hold soils together during times of
stress.

It is no secret that demand for high-end
wines from all regions has slowed abruptly. Even last year, at the tail end of
the 2004 Barolo campaign, a number of great, benchmark wines were offered to US
consumers at substantial discounts. So far reception to the 2005 Barolos has
been tepid. One major producer told me quite candidly he bottled less of his
2005 Barolos because he feared they wouldn’t sell through. Other producers have
quietly begun bottling Langhe Nebbiolo in an effort to quickly monetize some of
their efforts rather than risk sitting on thousands of unsold bottles of Barolo
or Barbaresco. I was struck by the very high overall quality of many of these
Langhe Nebbiolos. It is fairly obvious (among the region’s serious producers)
that growers are paying more attention to their entry- level wines, which plays
right into the hands of savvy consumers, who will find no shortage of
well-priced wines in the market.

Barbaresco 2006: Highs and Lows

The 2006 vintage in Barbaresco has turned out
mixed results that fall short of those the region saw in 2004 and 2005. Overall
2006 was a hot year, yet rain and hail during the harvest caused growers
headaches at the most critical part of the season. Just after the fruit was
picked, the prospects for the 2006s seemed uncertain. At the time, one of
Barbaresco’s reference-point producers told me he would likely not bottle his
top single- vineyard selections. Later he changed his mind and like most
producers ended up bottling his top wines. The Produttori del Barbaresco plan
to release their Riservas, although the wines are still in barrel.

Of course, life wouldn’t be interesting if
there weren’t one exception and in this case it is none other than Bruno
Giacosa, arguably the most revered producer of the entire region. Giacosa’s
announcement he would not bottle his Barbarescos (and Barolos) touched off a
series of furious volleys back and forth on the merits, or lack thereof, of the
2006 harvest. As I wrote in my reviews of Giacosa’s new releases, I doubt
anyone, including Giacosa himself, will fully understand all of the nuances of
his decision. One thing I am very certain about is that Giacosa’s comments on
the quality of the vintage should only be interpreted within the context of his
own wines, rather than as a damning of the entire vintage, as was mistakenly
attributed throughout much of the press.

To be sure, 2006 is a mixed vintage in
Barbaresco for the reasons I note above. However, the best wines are clearly
outstanding, even if they can’t match the 2004s or 2005s for consistency,
complexity, or ageability. For the most part, these are pretty, mid-weight
Barbarescos suited for near-term drinking. Within that context, readers will
find plenty of wines well worth seeking out.

The most positive trend emerging from
Barbaresco is the increasing number of growers making important wines. As
recently as a few years ago, that wasn’t always the case, and to tell the truth
even today Barbaresco’s producers don’t always capture the full potential of
top vintages like 2004 that require an extra measure of sacrifice in the
vineyard. That said, young producers like Renato Vacca, Luca Roagna and Andrea
Sottimano, among others, are well-poised to write the next chapter of history
in Barbaresco. The Produttori del Barbaresco have never made such consistently
outstanding wines in their 50+ years of history, and prices remain exceedingly
fair for the quality of what is in the bottle. Among the region’s long- established
stars, Angelo Gaja and Bruno Giacosa show no signs of slowing down, while
producers like Bruno Rocca and Bruno Nada who have been making great wines for
some time continue to impress. In short, despite a mixed 2006 vintage, I am
increasingly optimistic about Barbaresco and its wines.

More 2005 Barolo

A number of late-release 2005 Barolos will be
appearing in the marketplace over the coming months. The more I taste the 2005
Barolos, the more I like the vintage. Once again, Nebbiolo proves to be a very
hard grape to understand. Towards the end of the growing season producers knew
they were likely in for a protracted period of rain, so most chose to pick
ahead of the inclement weather. The vast majority of fruit was picked with
lower physiological ripeness (the ripeness of the seeds and stems) than is the
custom today. Many of the wines showed hard, grainy tannins when they were
young that were particularly coarse even within the context of baby Nebbiolo.
Yet with bottle age the wines continue to gain focus and balance while showing
great fruit in a transformation that is truly remarkable. Two thousand five&nbsp;remains a
vintage of smaller scaled Barolos vis-à-vis the kaleidoscopic, layered 2004s,
but the best wines have enough purity of fruit and acidity to develop nicely
for a number of years. The finest 2005 Barolos will deliver considerable
pleasure in a more immediate style than the 2004s.

2008 and 2007 Update

As I wrote in Issue 184, 2008 appears to be a
good, but not great, vintage, particularly for Dolcetto and the young Barberas
that are coming on the market. In general, the wines are soft and approachable,
but lack a touch of depth that might otherwise elevate them. 2008 saw a wet
spring which caused an irregular flowering and crop set. Uneven weather
continued into the early summer, and it wasn’t until the end of the summer that
the heat finally arrived. The conditions were most challenging for Dolcetto and
Barbera, two varieties that ripen earlier than Nebbiolo. Many of the 2008
Dolcettos and Barberas reveal slightly unpolished, grainy tannins and lack the
stuffing of top vintages. The gorgeous conditions in the late summer and early
fall of 2008 were much more favorable for Nebbiolo, which today looks like the
most successful variety of this challenging growing season.

The 2007s are far more consistent across
Piedmont’s main red grapes. In 2007 a cool summer helped restore a measure of
balance after a record-breaking winter that was unusually warm and dry. The
2007s are soft, perfumed, silky-textured wines that have always shown well
right out of the gate. I was especially struck by a number of superb 2007
Barberas, the best of which are exceptionally elegant, pure and refined.
Stylistically the wines resemble the 2004s, but with a touch more fruit. The
2007 Barbarescos will be released in 2010, the 2007 Barolos in 2011. So far,
what I have tasted in 2007 Barbaresco and Barolo looks highly promising.
Broadly speaking, the wines possess gorgeous aromatics, generous ripe fruit and
silky tannins, qualities that are hard to find in one vintage. Once again, at
this stage a comparison with 2004 seems apt.

Roero: Full of Promise

This small appellation across the valley from
Barbaresco seldom gets much attention because for many years most of Roero’s
best wines were bottled by producers outside the region, including Bruno
Giacosa’s Arneis and the Nebbiolo d’Alba Valmaggiore made by both Giacosa and
Luciano Sandrone. That all started to change in the mid-1990s under the
leadership of Matteo Correggia, a young producer who inspired so many growers
here through his passion and commitment to quality. Sadly, Correggia died in a
tragic tractor accident in 2001 but his legacy is very much alive and well
among the many growers who he influenced.

The soils, rich in minerals and with a high
percentage of sand, yield wines that are typically perfumed, steely and medium
in body. The main grapes are the white Arneis and the red Barbera and Nebbiolo.
Arneis is a floral, minerally wine with a flavor profile that tends towards
apricots, peaches, flowers and almonds. The Barberas of Roero, bottled as
Barbera d’Alba, also show a pronounced minerality that captures a nice middle
ground between the Barberas of Asti and those made in the Barbaresco and Barolo
producing villages further south. Nebbiolo can be bottled either as Nebbiolo
d’Alba (for the simpler versions) or the new Roero DOCG that prescribes more
stringent requirements on yields and aging. Today there are only a handful of
important Roeros but these bottles suggest that the region is capable of
producing wines that can hold their own with Barolo and Barbaresco. Speak with
old-timers in Piedmont and they will tell you that in previous generations
large négociants would buy Nebbiolo in Roero to make up any shortfall in Barolo
and Barbaresco grapes. Roero’s leading producers include Malvirà, Matteo
Correggia, Val del Prete, Almondo, Hilberg-Pasquero and Ca’ Rossa, all of whom
make wines well worth discovering.

Piedmont’s Ten Most Underrated Producers

Piedmont, like most wine regions, remains
dominated by the image, history and quality level associated with a small
handful of iconic growers. As phenomenal as the wines of those producers can
be, today there are a number of estates making very fine wines for a fraction
of the cost. These are some of my favorite under the radar producers (in no
particular order). All of these estates have two things in common; each of
their wines is consistently excellent to outstanding in their respective peer
groups, and prices offer good value. To be sure, Barolo, Barbaresco and
top-flight Barbera are rarely inexpensive in absolute terms, but your dollar is
likely to go further in Piedmont than it is in many, if not most, of the
world’s most celebrated regions for fine, cellar worthy wine, including
Bordeaux, Burgundy and California. Here, then, is my top ten list of Piedmont’s
most overlooked wineries: Brovia (Castiglione Falletto), Cavallotto
(Castiglione Falletto), G.D. Vajra (Barolo), Cantina del Pino (Barbaresco),
Roagna (Barbaresco), Fratelli Alessandria (Verduno), Alessandro e Gian Natale
Fantino (Monforte), Cascina Val del Prete (Roero), Elvio Cogno (Novello) and
Produttori del Barbaresco (Barbaresco).

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